Red Moscow

  Chapter 408 One shot makes meritorious service

  Early the next morning, the north and south hills of Mamayev Gang were bombarded by the German army at the same time.

   Sokov, who was staying in the tunnel, heard the faint sound of artillery from outside, and knew that this was a precursor to a large-scale German attack. He gave orders to the battalion commanders by telephone, asking them to enter the surface position immediately after the enemy's shelling was over, and prepare to block the attacking enemy.

  In the past, the work of assigning tasks was done by Sidolin. Looking at Sokov who was solemnly assigning tasks to the battalion commanders, Sidolin approached Belkin and said in a low voice: "Comrade political commissar, have you noticed that the brigade commander seems to be a little bit wrong today?"

Belkin nodded: "That's right, I've noticed it too, you know, you are usually responsible for these tasks. But today he personally called each battalion commander, and after assigning tasks, he repeatedly Tell the other party some precautions. It seems that the next battle will be very intense."

After Sokov finished calling the battalion commanders, Belkin asked: "Comrade brigade commander, isn't the chief of staff responsible for assigning tasks to the battalions? Why did you personally give the battalion commander today?" Are we calling?"

In Sokov's memory, the German army launched a continuous onslaught on Mamayev Gang in three days from September 13 to 15, and the 13th Guards Division, which had just arrived in Stalingrad, was here A brutal tug-of-war ensued, leaving Rodimtsev's troops decimated.

Although today's Mamayev Hill has tunnels that cannot be destroyed by the enemy's artillery fire, if the enemy wants to prevent the enemy from seizing the commanding heights of the city, the next battle will still be extremely fierce, so Sokov will call the battalion commanders, Deploy defenses to them personally. Hearing Belkin's question at this moment, he hesitated for a moment and then replied: "Comrade Political Commissar, didn't you hear that the two hills we were standing on were both heavily shelled by the German army? This shows that the Germans A massive attack on Mamayev Kurgan will soon be launched."

Belkin tilted his head and listened to the commotion outside. Since the command post was deep underground, the sound of the artillery had become very faint. After listening for a while, he nodded and said, "Yes, Comrade Brigadier Commander, the sound of the guns outside The shelling was very violent." After sitting up straight, he said disapprovingly, "The enemy will carry out such shelling every time before attacking, and I don't think there is anything wrong with it."

"Before the enemy's previous attacks, the target of shelling was either the north hill or the south hill, but they never bombarded both hills at the same time." Sokov said with a straight face: "This means that once the shelling is over, the enemy will There will be an onslaught on both hills at the same time, and I expect the fighting to be fierce."

Maybe it's because every time the Germans attacked Mamayev Gang, they ended in disastrous defeat. Not to mention Political Commissar Belgin, even Chief of Staff Sidolin didn't realize that the German bombardment before the attack today was different from the usual What a difference.

  ...

  When Mamayev Gang was heavily shelled, the German 21st Grenadier Regiment attacked the Central Railway Station again. According to the report of the scouts, Colonel Lengerk adjusted his tactics in time after learning that no less than one battalion of defenders had been added to the station. He did not directly attack the station, but took the staff dormitory area near the station as a new target of attack.

  The reason why he made this decision was because the Soviet army concentrated its main forces at the station, and the defense forces in the dormitory area were weak. Once you occupy the dormitory area, you can use it as a starting point to attack the station and shorten the impact distance. If the station can be occupied, and it can form an angle with the station, even if the Soviet army launches a counterattack against the station, it can attack the Soviet army from the side and rear.

The station staff dormitory is about one kilometer away from the station. There are more than fifty four-story buildings. Although the Soviet army did not deploy too many troops here, and the defenders are mainly militias composed of railway employees, But it is not easy for the Germans to occupy here.

   When Major Haydn's troops rushed forward along the street, they were shot by a Maxim heavy machine gun, and many soldiers were killed on the street. When they hid by the walls of buildings on both sides of the street, they were attacked by cold guns from inside the buildings on both sides. In just a few minutes, 20 German soldiers were killed and more than 30 people were wounded to varying degrees.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Haydn quickly called the head of the regiment Lengek: "Mr. head, when our battalion was attacking the dormitory area, we were attacked by cold guns, and it was difficult to move forward. Please provide us with support. "

  After receiving a call from Major Haydn, Lengek immediately rushed to support with two tanks. Since Lengok determined that the defenders in the dormitory area had no anti-tank weapons, he ordered the infantry to follow the tanks and charge forward.

   Facing the tanks rushing up, the soldiers and militiamen hiding behind the windows of the house hurriedly started shooting. Although the bullets hit the armor plate like hail, it did not stop the tank from advancing at all.

The infantry behind the tanks had many ways to deal with the exposed firepower points. They rushed to the window where the soldiers were standing against the wall, threw the grenade emitting white smoke into it, and after a loud bang, they hid in the The house is cleared of fighters or militia.

  There are some firepower points that cannot be approached. The tanks that opened the way in front stopped, turned their muzzles, and only needed to blast there, and then the whole world was quiet, and the German army could move forward again.

  Although the German tanks and infantry were constantly clearing the firepower points hidden in the buildings by the Soviet army, they never found out where the Soviet army's heavy machine guns were. As long as the heavy machine gun of the Soviet army is fired, it will take the lives of several German soldiers.

   Regarding the casualties caused by this ghost-like heavy machine gun to his subordinates, Haydn gritted his teeth with anger, but there was nothing he could do. Although the tank brought by the head of the regiment Lengek has destroyed many firepower points of the Soviet army, so far, no one has found the location of the heavy machine gun. Even if you want the tank to destroy it, you can't find the target .

   Seeing Haydn lose his composure, Lengek said indifferently: "Major, as a commander, you must remain calm on the battlefield at all times, so that you can defeat your enemy. Do you understand?"

   "Mr. Colonel," Haydn said with some hesitation, "this Russian machine gun poses too great a threat to us. If we don't eliminate it, we won't be able to occupy the entire residential area."

"According to my guess, this heavy machine gun of the Russians must be hidden behind the window of some building, because the muzzle of the gun does not stick out of the window, so our people can't find it at all." Lungek held up the binoculars While observing, he said: "So we have to be patient and find out this heavy machine gun of the Russians. As long as the machine gun is killed, the resistance of the Russians in the dormitory area will collapse."

About 300 meters away from Lengek and Haydn, there was a half-collapsed building. In the ruins of the building, there were a man and a woman wearing steel helmets. They were lying on the pile of rubble. Among them, a man is holding a rifle with a scope, aiming at soldiers moving on the street in the distance. The woman was Zina from the sniper team of the guard company, and the man was Vasily, who was brought by Sokov from the 42nd Guards Regiment last night.

  When Zina received a sniper mission with Vasily early this morning, she felt very uncomfortable. She didn't understand why her superiors would arrange for her and a new recruit to perform such a mission. She worried that Vasily would panic and expose the target during the mission, which would lead to the failure of the mission and even threaten the lives of the two. So she deliberately said to the company commander Sergey Sha: "Comrade company commander, how can you let me take a recruit to perform such a dangerous mission? Maybe a shell landed fifty meters away from him and exploded. would run around in fright like a frightened rabbit..."

  When Zina said these words, Vasily was standing not far from her, and he just smiled honestly and didn't express any opinion. For Seryozha, the company commander of the guard, he was also unwilling to let Vasily perform such a task, but this was explained by Sokov himself, and he could not object. Facing Zina's complaints, he could only say helplessly: "Comrade Zina, the brigade commander personally arranged for the new soldier Vasily to carry out such a sniper mission. His orders can only be carried out unconditionally. Do you understand?"

Hearing that Seryozha moved out of Sokov, Zina knew that no matter how much she objected, she could only accept the reality, so she nodded and said helplessly: "Okay, Comrade Company Commander, since it is an order from the superior , I resolutely obey. But I want to declare to you in advance, only this time, I will never perform such a task with him again in the future."

  Zina took Vasily to the staff dormitory area, and found an inconspicuous ruin to hide. In order to prevent Vasily from exposing the target due to nervous shooting, Zina also specially reminded him: "We are snipers, not ordinary soldiers, so our targets are not ordinary German soldiers, but officers, machine gunners, Gunners, signalmen; you can't shoot until I give the order to shoot. Understand?"

  The good-tempered Vasily waited patiently for Zina to finish speaking, then nodded, and replied in a low voice, "Understood."

When the German army rushed in from outside the dormitory area, Zina's heart was in her throat. She was afraid that Vasily would lose his composure and shoot at the enemy without obeying his orders. Glance at Vasily. Seeing Vasily lying there motionless like a statue holding a sniper rifle, she felt a little more at ease in her heart.

  Lengek and Haydn stood at the window of the command post, raised their binoculars and searched the buildings on the side of the road little by little, trying to find out where the Soviet army's heavy machine guns were located. He searched very carefully. He stopped at almost every window above the second floor of the roadside buildings. After looking at them for a while, he suddenly said, "Major, I found the Russian heavy machine gun."

   "What, did you find it?" Haydn had a surprised expression on his face when he heard Rengek say this, and asked quickly, "Mr. Captain, where is it?"

  Lengek held the binoculars, pointed to the distance, and said, "Look at the building number 17 on the right side of the street, in the leftmost window on the third floor."

Haydn looked at the direction provided by Lengek, and after looking at it for a while, he said with some doubts: "Mr. Commander, do you really think that the Russians' heavy machine gun position is there? I saw that the windows of that window are all closed."

"Major, just because the windows are closed, we tend to ignore these places when we search for the target." Rengek explained to Haydn with a smile: "But if you look carefully, the two glass windows at the bottom of the window are gone. , the heavy machine guns mounted inside the house fired through the windows without glass.”

  Although Rengek had made his words so clear, Haydn was still a little dubious. He didn't immediately order the communications soldiers to get in touch with the tanks and let them attack the window, but continued to raise the binoculars to make sure. Seeing that Haydn hadn't carried out his order for a long time, Rengek guessed that the other party might still have doubts about what he said, so he didn't speak, but raised his binoculars and looked in other directions.

After waiting for about two or three minutes, Haydn saw a half-foot-long flame coming out of the window, and he couldn't help shaking. He secretly said that it seemed that the commander was right. The Russians really hid the heavy machine gun in the window. If it wasn't for the head's carefulness, he would definitely not be able to discover this firepower point.

  Haydn hastily put down the binoculars, turned his head and shouted at the radio operator not far away: "Immediately contact the tanks in front and let them attack the first window on the left side of the third floor of Building 17..."

  After receiving the order, the German tank immediately turned its muzzle and fired a shot at the window where the Soviet heavy machine gun was located. After the shells flew in through the window, there was an explosion soon, and a Soviet soldier and some parts of the machine gun were thrown out of the house and fell directly downstairs.

  "Mr. Commander," Haydn couldn't help dancing excitedly when he saw that the tank had killed the Soviet heavy machine gun position with one shot: "Our tank has killed the Russian heavy machine gun."

   "Major," Lengek looked at his watch and said to Haydn, "Since the Russians' heavy machine guns have been killed, I hope you can completely occupy this residential area before noon, understand?"

"Understood, Mr. Commander." Seeing that the heavy machine gun fire point that threatened him the most had been cleared, Haydn immediately became confident, and he quickly assured Lengek, "I will definitely take down this before noon." Residential area." Ren Geke nodded, and then left the headquarters with an accompanying staff officer and walked outside.

  A black car was parked outside the building. After Lengek came out of the building, the accompanying staff quickly stepped up, walked to the car, bent down and opened the door, and respectfully invited Lengek to get in the car. But he soon saw that a cloud of blood sprayed from Lengek's chest without warning, and then his boss turned around in a circle and fell down limply. The staff officer was stunned by this scene, and just stared blankly at Lengek fell to the ground.

  (end of this chapter)